The connected vehicle infrastructure provides a platform for collecting and utilizing much vehicle data that can be used advantageously in a wide variety of applications. Such applications are not limited to vehicle control and infotainment, but may also involve vehicle safety. One such safety issue is the availability of situational awareness and adequate medical information in an accident or other emergency situation.
Different vehicle manufacturers have different telematic solutions for identifying accidents and other emergency situations and triggering the automatic dispatch of emergency personnel. Most of these solutions involve sensing the deployment of airbags or monitoring other on-board sensors and opening a communication channel with a potentially injured or sick vehicle occupant. Thus, limited event and medical information may be relayed to the emergency personnel. No known solutions identify a vehicle occupant in advance of an emergency event or the like and provide his or her relevant medical history to the emergency personnel upon the occurrence of a triggering event. Importantly, such information would allow the emergency personnel to more quickly and effectively treat an injured or sick vehicle occupant on scene, and later at a medical facility. It is not always possible to obtain this information from the vehicle occupant when a triggering event occurs, as he or she may be unconscious or traumatized, depending on the severity of the triggering event. Critical information may include, for example: identity, sex, age, personal statistics, blood type, medications, allergies, pre-existing conditions, pregnancy status, physicians, emergency contact information, and the like, in addition to vehicle type and location, vehicle occupant seating position, and vehicle occupant condition.
Thus, what are still needed in the art are systems and methods that, in a triggering vehicle emergency event or the like, capture the health status of a previously-identified or unidentified vehicle occupant in real time using an on-board camera and/or other sensor. Preferably, this vehicle occupant identification and health status information are variously transmitted to the cloud, where the vehicle occupant identification is coupled with available public health profile information, in the case of a previously-identified vehicle occupant. Subsequently, the health status information and public health profile information are transmitted to an emergency responder or the like, thereby aiding in rendering medical assistance to an injured or sick vehicle occupant.